Aumua and Small Business Committee Markup Legislation to Expand Small Business Opportunities

Washington, D.C. –Thursday, Congresswoman Aumua Amata, and the House Small Business Committee held a markup yesterday, approving bipartisan legislation to expand and improve opportunities for America’s small businesses to compete for federal contracts. The measure, H.R. 4341, the Defending America’s Small Contractors Act of 2016, was approved unanimously by the committee and now advances to the House floor for consideration.

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“I want to thank Chairman Chabot for introducing this legislation, as well as including my bill, the Small Business CAPE Act into the original text of the Defending America’s Small Contractors Act,” said Amata. “This committee has worked extremely hard to ensure that our small businesses are included in the awarding of federal contracts when appropriate, and this bill will do just that,” continued Amata.

Specifically, the Defending America’s Small Contractors Act of 2016:

• Modernizes the Small Business Act, and the SBA’s reporting requirements, to ensure that the language used is clear and consistent across federal procurement programs.
• Strengthens the small business advocates within SBA and other federal agencies so they can promote competition and compliance.
• Improves opportunities for small businesses to compete for subcontracts, and then to capitalize on that experience to compete as prime contractors, thereby strengthening the industrial base.
• Improves coordination and data sharing between the SBA’s government-wide mentor-protégé program, civilian agency mentor-protégé programs, and the mentor-protégé program at the Department of Defense.
• Implements common sense reforms to ensuring integrity in small business programs, such as the agricultural size standards, veterans contracting programs, SBA operations and contracting officer training programs.

The Congresswoman introduced the SB CAPE Act earlier this month as part of her ongoing effort to improve oversight at the SBA, and builds upon the legislation she had signed into law last year, which called for an examination of how the SBA’s “contract bundling” has negatively affected the ability of the nation’s small businesses to properly compete for contracts from federal agencies.

“With so many small businesses on our island, I am determined to make sure that they have every opportunity as those large corporations on the mainland,” said Amata. “This legislation fulfills our responsibility as the committee of jurisdiction over the SBA in our oversight responsibilities, while at the same time expanding opportunities for our small businesses,” concluded Amata.

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